
2016 Best Creative Media and Entertainment Art Schools in the World
Discover the world's top art schools. Explore the Rookies World School Rankings® 2016.
The Best Art Schools for 2016 is something we take very seriously and no external influences or payments are entered into at any point. Our rankings focus on the quality of students portfolios that are submitted to our judging panel which best reflect the recruitment interview process.
We feel that traditional school rankings that include peer and employer reviews, faculty to student ratio, citations and other data are not adequate when ranking the best creative schools. For a complete breakdown of how we rank the best schools for 2018 please read how we rank the best schools and how we analyse the data in the sections located at the bottom of this page.

Best VFX & Animation School 2016
Rank | School | Location |
---|---|---|
1 | FILMAKADEMIE BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG | Ludwigsburg, Germany |
2 | GOBELINS | Paris, France |
3 | VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL | Vancouver, Canada |
4 | UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE | Hatfield, England |
5 | GNOMON | Los Angeles, United States |
6 | MEDIA DESIGN SCHOOL | Auckland, New Zealand |
7 | ARTFX | Montpellier, France |
8 | ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY | San Francisco, United States |
9 | THE ANIMATION WORKSHOP | Viborg, Denmark |
10 | ESMA – ECOLE SUPÉRIEURE DES MÉTIERS ART | Montpellier, France |
Best Concept Art & Illustration School 2016
Rank | School | Location |
---|---|---|
1 | GNOMON | Los Angeles, United States |
2 | 3DSENSE MEDIA SCHOOL | Singapore, Singapore |
3 | THINK TANK TRAINING CENTRE | Vancouver, Canada |
4 | UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE | Hatfield, England |
5 | MAX THE MUTT COLLEGE | Toronto, Canada |
Best Game Design School 2016
Rank | School | Location |
---|---|---|
1 | UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE | Hatfield, England |
2 | GNOMON | Los Angeles, United States |
3 | ISART DIGITAL | Paris, France |
4 | 3DSENSE MEDIA SCHOOL | Singapore, Singapore |
5 | HOWEST UNIVERSITY | Kortrijk, Belgium |
6 | THINK TANK TRAINING CENTRE | Vancouver, Canada |
7 | SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN | Savannah, United States |
8 | VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL | Vancouver, Canada |
9 | FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY | Winter Park, Florida |
Best 3D Motion Graphics School 2016
Rank | School | Location |
---|---|---|
1 | SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN | Savannah, United States |
2 | VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL | Vancouver, Canada |
3 | ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY | San Francisco, United States |
4 | UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE | Hatfield, England |
5 | NANYANG POLYTECHNIC | Singapore, Singapore |
Best Architectural Visualisation School 2016
Rank | School | Location |
---|---|---|
1 | CICE – ESCUELA DE NUEVAS TECNOLOGÍAS | Spain, Madrid |
2 | AZAD UNIVERSITY | Tehran, Iran |
3 | FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY | Winter Park, Florida |
4 | UNIVERSITY OF GUILAN | Rasht, Guilan, Iran |
How we rank the best Art Schools
Our rankings focus on the quality of students portfolios that are submitted to our judging panel which best reflect the recruitment interview process.
The reason we take this approach is because we believe the goal of each creative school is tasked with helping students learn the right creative and technical skills that mirror the requirements of industry. It is their job to train artists to a level that allows them to transition from to a professional environment with ease.
The end result for students is less about grades, it’s about creating a digital portfolio that best showcases their skills and displays an understanding of production pipelines. This is why our judges review portfolios and review student work in the same manner as a professional job application.
The rankings are based on the scores as awarded by the official judging panel. Opinions by the general public are by no means considered.
Students are judged on their creative skills, technical skills, presentation, variety of skills, complexity, raw talent, and employment potential.

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How we analyse the data
Each school is awarded a final score based on the performance of each student representing their academic facility.
When analysing the average scores of each student per school there are three possible data formulas available to use: mean, median and mode.
The Rookies uses median. The median is the middle point of a number set, in which half the numbers are above the median and half are below. A median is intrinsically understandable. It is the middle number when the values are put in order.
The most important factor here is that a median is not affected by outliers. This means that schools are not penalised for incomplete entries and schools are not favoured for a single high score that is not the norm. Student scores often have outlier values and using the median is the more robust solution to determine an average.
Important details about how a school score is calculated:
- Schools with < 5 student entries are excluded from ranking.
- Incomplete student entries are removed from calculations. No penalties.
- Each student receives a performance score. Max 100 points. (Student Score)
- Median students score calculated per school. Max 100 points. (Median Student Score)
- Each category finalist receives 10 bonus points toward School Score.
- Each category runner up receives 15 bonus points toward School Score.
- Each category winner receives 20 bonus points toward School Score.
